34 FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (COUNTY COUNCIL)

Some months ago the records of the administrative agencies of Mont-
gomery County were surveyed by professional record specialists. A schedule
of active and inactive retention periods was prepared for each record series
at the end of which the records were considered to be of no further value
and to be subject to destruction. Just before the end of the year, the
County Manager of Montgomery County asked the cooperation of the
Archivist in establishing such schedules of destruction in accordance with
the provisions of Chapter 755 of the Acts of 1949 which had just become
effective. This will be the first application of the act and it is being studied
carefully, for it will very likely serve as a precedent for future requests
of a similar nature.

PUBLIC WELFARE, DEPARTMENT OF

On November 9, 1948, we were contacted by the Director of the
State Department of Public Welfare for advice about the proper disposi-
tion of 60,000 individual case records of applications for public assistance
in the files of the Baltimore City Department of Public Welfare. These
were cases which had been inactive for five years or longer. Subsequent
discussion revealed that similar records were on file in the various county
welfare boards and would eventually share the fate of the Baltimore City
records. This being the situation, we examined the records of the Anne
Arundel County Welfare Board, which is conveniently located in Annap-
olis. We learned that the essential information about each case could be
found on the master index card except the total amount paid each indi-
vidual. This information is recorded elsewhere. Therefore the case records
were refused with the recommendation that they be destroyed and the
master index cards be retained. It was further suggested that if the reten-
tion of the index cards proved too burdensome, they might be copied on
microfilm and then destroyed. As yet no certificate of destruction has
been filed.

TREASURER

When the State Treasurer moved into the State Office Building some
years ago, he left behind in the basement of the Court of Appeals Building
a small quantity of his records. These records were offered to us on
August 3, 1948. Some of them were transferred (see list of accessions)
and the rest, comprising about 200 volumes of Bank Books, 1900-1920,